Onkyo - TX-NR5100 80W 7.2-Ch. with Dolby Atmos Home Theater and Gaming AV Receiver with Alexa Compatible - Black

I'm using this receiver to drive a 3.0 sound system for my office. Elac Uni-Fi series first generation. Two UB51 Bookshelfs and a UC5 Center channel. The sound is super smooth, perfect amount of detail. I leave it in all channel stereo mode with the Bass turned to +6. It sounds balanced, clean, and not fatiguing. I can listen to it all day and still work and be productive. Out of my Macbook, I'm using an "SMSL PO100 PRO" that creates an optical digital out from usb-c. The detail and clarity is incredible, without any interference sound. I tried using analog from the headphone jack and the quality was sub-par. Digital is the only way to go. I downloaded the program "SoundSource" from Rogue Amoeba that allows me to natively adjust the volume for the optical out with the volume controls from my mac, without that program, it's fixed at the loudest setting and you have to adjust the volume from the receiver. At first, I purchased the Yamaha RX-V4A, but it had a weird sound, didn't care for how it processed the audio, couldn't get it to sound right, it was fatiguing and over exaggerated the treble/detail. I also purchased the Onkyo TX-NR6100 and Sony STR-AN1000. I'm using the receiver for near field listening, and the other receivers had too much hissing sound, which is normal for any receiver, but the 5100 has a very minimal amount, not noticeable. Also, the other receivers generate a lot of heat and made my office warmer. The other receivers definitely sounded good, but in a blind test, my ears still prefer the natural sound from the Onkyo 5100. Maybe in a bigger living room, I would have gone with one of the others, but for my near field use case, the Onkyo 5100 was the best choice.

If you're going to get this receiver to hook up your Xbox Series X, then don't bother. It will do 4K 120hz with vrr but unfortunately with no HDR. Looking at the PDF manual it states that the HDMI 2.1 port is capped at 24gps, not 40gps. Anyways other than that it was OK. Sound was decent but definitely not better than my Denon from 2014. Audysee room correction is better than the standard Onkyo room correction. The higher ended Onkyos will come with DiracLive but this one doesn't have it. The on screen user interface was nice and easy to follow. Anyway, I will be returning it and waiting (forever) for Denons HDMI 2.1 bug free receivers.

If you have a surround setup but don't want to pay thousands this unit checks alot of boxes. I haven't regretted this purchase for one second. Sound really punches and has an easy interface for setup.

Works great now but had to drop it off at a certified repair shop to replace the hdmi board. Luckily, my open box purchase was still under warranty so I didn’t need to pay for the repair. It’s been great since the repair and was worth the very low open box price I paid.

Very easy to use and install The sound and quality of image is awesome